THE HAGUE--The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Wednesday evening elected its new President: Khadija Arib of the Labour Party PvdA.
Morocco-born Arib (55), a Member of the Second Chamber since 1998 received 83 of the 134 valid votes. Four voting rounds were needed for Arib to secure the majority of votes. The process to elect a new President to replace Anouchka van Miltenburg who stepped down in December lasted some eight hours.
In the fourth and last round only fellow candidate Ton Elias of the liberal democratic VVD party and Arib remained. The two other candidates, Martin Bosma of the Party for Freedom PVV and Madeleine van Toorenburg of the Christian Democratic Party CDA, didn’t muster enough support to make it past the third round.
The voting was preceded by an extensive debate in the Second Chamber during which the Members had the opportunity to question the candidates on their ambitions and management style. The candidates motivated why he or she should become President of Parliament.
The Members voted anonymously. Some Members abstained from voting. The PVV party of Geert Wilders didn’t support Arib. The party has objected to Arib’s double nationality (Dutch and Moroccan) and her slight accent. Wilders has also clashed on occasion with Arib when she chaired meetings as Acting President.
Following her election as President, Arib thanked the Members of Parliament (MPs) for their trust and support, and her fellow candidates. “I will give this Parliament the necessary space and of course intervene where necessary,” said an emotional Arib. “It takes much courage to stick out your neck and to nominate. It generates much publicity, also negative publicity.”
Arib, Elias and Bosma were all members of the Presidium. Van Toorenburg is a member of several permanent committees, including Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations. Arib will remain President until the next Parliament elections in March 2017.
